December 2007

Long celebrated as the king of English cheeses, festively veined with blue-green mold, Stilton is the holiday cheese of choice here. Something like half of the year’s production is sold in November and December.

On Monday, I attended an intriguing tasting of this year’s Stiltons — intriguing because it included a new aspirant to the throne. This upstart young cousin can’t use the royal name, even though it aims to be the most traditional Stiltonian cheese of all. It’s called Stichelton.

In today's Curious Cook column I write about a new English cheese intended to be a re-creation of the great blue cheese Stilton at its greatest, when it was made largely by hand with unpasteurized milk.